Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Return To Normalcy & The First Jag Roam

Over the weekend I graduated from college. While this is all well and good, it significantly cut into my Eve time recently. ;) My killboard on Battleclinic showed 0-0 on the week for the first time in a few months. It was a bit disappointing, but it was during an understandably busy time. The other night I decided to get back on the horse and logged in again. I was in a pretty small fleet of 8 men, and we managed to catch a Drake coming through the Otela gate in Poinen. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to burn it down in time, as there was intel that the Red Fleet was jumping into us any minute. I was even pretty sure it was bait, and when I ran out of missiles I was ready to bail. Overheat saved the day though, and we got him down just as the Red Fleet landed. It was a satisfying kill, but I had to hit the rack for work the next day.

The last action I saw prior to that was my first Jaguar roam. I took a trip and started by setting the navigation system on a course towards 5KG-PY in Providence. In all honesty, the roam reminded me of one of the biggest things I don't like about null - a distinct lack of targets. I ran through Providence for an hour or so, and most people were docked up or systems were empty.

I finally got a fight with a hesitant little Harpy. I thought for sure that my Autocannons would tear him apart, but his shields were pretty resistant. I burned my guns to about 75% damage from overheat and decided that since I hadn't cracked his shields yet, it was time to bail. I burned away, got out of scram range, and kicked on the MWD. It wasn't exactly how I wanted the fight to go, but it wasn't a bad effort and I got out alive.

Then I headed towards somewhere more friendly to repair my overheating damage. I took off for Assah in the Derelik region. I wandered around this region for a while until I realized that I was close to Curse. I've got Curse at least decently well bookmarked from my brief stay in Open University of Celestial Hardship (0UCH), so I figured I'd give that a shot since Providence was so quiet. I popped a few cyno alts on the way there because I was getting restless.

Once in Curse, I was seeing more of the same. It was either no one around or larger gangs. There was a Slicer that wanted some action, but I knew that without Barrage I wouldn't be able to close distance and apply some damage. Finally, I came through the Jorund system, and saw a cynosural field lit up with a Dramiel on scan. That sounded manageable. I warped to the cyno which was just above the station and saw the cyno Kestrel and a Dramiel. Sadly, the Dramiel called in friends. I was burning him into armor before he and 4 of his mates undocked and took me down.

Overall, it was a tough roam. Taking out a few cyno ships is hardly an interesting trade for a few hours of roaming culminating in an eventual death to a superior gang. I still have the nullsec itch, but maybe solo isn't the route. I'm still not in the mood for 1000 v 1000, but perhaps there's an NPC null corp that'll catch my interest. I've gotta give it a few more chances my way for now though. That's all I've got, but I'm glad to be returning to my regularly scheduled programming.